Social changes over the last 40 to 50 years. Good and bad.

iamstop

There have been some pretty big social changes over the last 40 to 50 years. Even if we only take Ireland into account there are some major changes with how the world works, peoples perceptions of how the world works and how the world actually works.

Let's discuss.

Some are obvious and not very controversial, like the attitude to smoking indoors. I remember being in McDonalds for my birthday one year and there were little foil ashtrays on most of the tables. I don't personally recall smoking in cinemas or on flights but my parents do. I do recall smoking in pubs though. Kinda crazy to think about now but it was the norm in my teens and early 20's.

Seatbelts were rarely in the back seats of cars. My folk would insist we sat right back in the seats at the back, like it would really have changed the outcome of a high speed crash but hey, that was the times.

markw7

The demise of the Catholic Church has been a positive in my eyes, unfortunately though it seems to have been replaced with consumerism/greed.

StupidLikeAFox

If you were a woman in the civil service and institution like banks, you had to resign if you got married - it wasnt optional

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117750151#Comment_117750151

My mother is seventy two ,she always says it was the daughters who got sent to school while the sons went out to work from a young age

Lot of myths about how awful women had it until about ten years ago

magicbastarder

not sure if you're challenging the point being made? my mother, and two of my aunts, were forced out of their jobs when they got married.

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117750256#Comment_117750256

Well I certainly don't think that was a good policy

Sonics2k

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117750244#Comment_117750244

But what he said wasn't a myth? It was very common. I had a granny who was forced out of her job at RTE when she married.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117750299#Comment_117750299

well, handy hint; don't suggest it was a myth.

Suckit

Dogs not allowed to roam free.

saabsaab

Certain items are much more common like phones even land line phones were rare and cars too. Many families didn't have them. Most shops didn't open on Sundays and no bank cash machines.

NickNickleby

I got married in 1979, shortly afterwards we decided that my wife should make some change to her Tax free allowance. When she got to the desk, she was told that her husband had to do it for her. Mrs N was not one bit pleased, let me tell you. I remember going in there, and saying how ridiculous this was, and the tax person agreed with me, but rules is rules.

This had nothing to do with my 'account' or her 'account' it was simply that as a wife she could make no changes whatsoever. But I could have taken ALL her TFA if I wanted - without her permission (so I was lead to believe).

when we bought our second house 4 years later, there was all sorts of paper work to be signed to protect the wife from having the house sold from under her by an unscrupulous husband. Apparently it was a very recent development. I don't recall having to do this in 1979. It may have been called the Family Home Act or something that sounded very like that.

Strumms

Smoking in pubs banned....

politicians across the political spectrum, people in healthcare, charities and the majority of the general public weighed in behind the idea and showed resolve against the usual vested interests who wanted healthy tills over healthy patrons ...

if you liked to go to the pub to enjoy a drink 3 nights a week you were / would be breathing in vast volumes of carcinogenic smoke in a poorly ventilated environment..

a good positive healthy change.

Pauliedragon

Good: Social media to an extent. It helps you stay in contact with people all over the world as someone who's lived abroad for a large part of my life it's good.

Bad: Social media. It can be a cesspool.

Day Lewin

Good: greater sexual liberality, much more wealth, much wider diversity in society.

Bad; entitlement, wastefulness, and trial by social media.

rock22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117750151#Comment_117750151

Many women resigned from their jobs because it allowed the couple to reclaim all the tax the women paid in that year. For the most part, it wasn't compulsory except in certain parts of the civil service. At that time the tax system gave married men double allowance on the basis that they were the only earner. The tax refund was usually used as a deposit on a house.

It was simply a way of manipulating the tax system

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117750821#Comment_117750821

You've had 4 a counts now of involuntary redundancy and yet were continuing the optional line

Bizarre

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117750335#Comment_117750335

I said something different

That the narrative that women had it far tougher than men until quite recently is in many ways a myth

Thread isn't about " past civil service policy "

whisky_galore

Good: abolition of corporal punishment in school, and frowned on in the home at the very least.

Bad: parents making a bags of parenting, being buddies with them, giving in to demands leading to a generation of selfish entitled adults.

magicbastarder

i remember when i was a teen, condom machines were being crowbarred of the walls of pub toilets.

and until only a few decades ago, buggery was a criminal offence, so to be a practicing gay man was a criminal offence. But obviously not to be a practicing lesbian.

another big societal change was that of women returning to work (and related to that, the rise of the two car household)

ressem

Good:

A lot more rules and policies that cause harm or distress have to be defended in public and court, and a higher proportion get changed. Less of a requirement to beg a TD to involve themselves.

The affected people found it much harder to get the attention of the policy creators and their managers. Even viewing a paper copy of the rule involved a battle with a bureaucrat that considered themselves as a bouncer / gatekeeper / St Peter guarding the gates.

Bad:

The cost and complexity of maintaining any community space / social & commercial premises grows faster than income. Empty flats, shops and scrubland are held as investment vehicles enjoying tax breaks and rising paper asset value allowing the owning funds to be wasteful and heedless of whether they are vacant.

KaneToad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117750151#Comment_117750151

I think you got a financial payment when being turfed out of the civil service?

Not that it makes it acceptable.

I think the worst societal change was, inadvertently, women coming into the workplace. We were much better off, socially, when most households only needed 1 member to be working full time to financially support the household.

Its a pity that the drive to push women into the workplace wasn't accompanied by a drive to remove men from the workplace.

Tow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117750256#Comment_117750256

The difference was one wage/salary was enough to buy a house and provide for a family back then. Now with two decent jobs a couple cannot afford to buy a house, especially in Dublin.

Tow

The banning of bedsits about 20 year ago caused a big change. The idea was to improve the quality of housing, but removing the bottom end of the market is part of the reason we have housing problems now.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117750244#Comment_117750244

It happened to girls too. My mother was taken out of school on her 14th birthday and started a full time job in a factory the next day.

mondeo

Freedom of speech... That's long gone, living in a free society to say what you want 20 years back was great. We are so controlled what we are allowed to say these days. Isn't it crazy how people today make such a big deal over things that were normal before.

StupidLikeAFox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117750821#Comment_117750821

Well it was prescribed in law until the early 70s for civil service, and banks etc mirrored the policy, so the tax thing while being a nice bonus

Unequal pay as standard was another thing. Came across this attachment ages ago which is terms and conditions for a post in rte in 1947, with different rates of pay for a man and woman. There is a marraige ban clause at the bottom as well

scan-of-radio-eireann-job-description-and-conditions-of-service-1947.pdf

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117750347#Comment_117750347

Like in a developing country? To get hit by cars and attack livestock?

I think part of the reason for the marriage ban was to try distribute the meagre resources of the State at bit more fairly. So that you wouldn't have civil servants marrying up and living in secure, relatively paid jobs with everyone else in grinding poverty. There was no ban on the woman working in a factory after marriage if she wanted.

Hyperbollix

My mother was forced out of her job once married as well. She'd never admit it, but it was a great release for her. Never liked the daily grind of the 9to5 or answering to a boss. Much preferred staying at home / domestic duties. How many married people slaving today would grab the opportunity to get off the threadmill in their 30s and still live a comfortable life, if one salary still allowed for that.

Lads left school and went to work from a young age because the majority didn't have the option to go on to third level education so what was the point in continuing their schooling if they were 'ready' to work and start bringing home money and contributing?

Women had less options for work so more probably stayed on.

Depending how far you're going back, housework or the role for women in the house was not an easy task. There were often a lot of children in a small house, no washing machine, no heating, food mostly prepared from scratch..it would have been go go go 24/7.

Most kids expect to go to on to third level now..that is a big change and we are still in the process but probably last generation of parents who were not raised with a significant importance placed on education as they were hardly going to be encouraged towards something that was out of reach.

StreetLight

The declaration of Travellers as an ethnic minority just gave them a licence to act as if the law of the land does not apply to them.

mikemac2

50 years ago travellers lived in utter poverty on the roadside and did work for farmers. Repairing metal and handling horses.

Tinker was not a dirty word at all.

If they were begging outside Mass well they needed the money. Maybe that money was being taken by the husband for booze but they were not living the high life.

Somewhere this changed and now the farmer fears them. And the traveller who knocks on your door asking for a little help likely is scoping out your place.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117757753#Comment_117757753

Farm mechanisation and plastic containers happened. They adapted, but not through education and getting a proper job like everyone else.

Sgt Hartman

It's sad that in a lot of estates now there seems to be very little community interaction, especially in middle class estates. Where I grew up in Limerick there was always a good sense of community in my area. These days it's rare to see people mixing with their neighbors. The person next door has become a complete stranger.

starbaby2003

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117758105#Comment_117758105

Not sure if that is true. I live in a middle class estate in a middle class area. All the kids play together on the green. I catch up regularly with the adults. There are a lot of social events where the whole estate gets together. It seems this picture of loss of community is painted frequently. I don’t know if I’ve been lucky but the only time I didn’t know my neighbours well was when I rented apartments.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117757753#Comment_117757753

The majority of ireland lived in utter poverty 50 years ago

Though i remember,travellers camping in old farm yard here,they were ould lads all in their 80s/90s,nice blokes,who gave money into neighbours as they just had a baby at the time...

something you simply dont see among travellers anymore is pensioners,or ability to relate to locals,its only accident of birth anyone could be one,(or indeed royalty for that matter)

Esel

^ You could be both: King Of The Travellers! 🙂

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117759416#Comment_117759416

50 years ago was only 1971, utter poverty, you make it sound like 1871.

Emigration granted was a huge problem and the troubles made it pretty grim, but a single wage earner being able to buy a house was a reasonable expectation. Cant even do that now.

People weren't throwing money around but no hoards living rough on the streets and no one was starving.

iamstop

Tattoos were much more scarce and mostly associated with criminals.

I had a friend who's Dad had a few small tattoos on his arms. I remember a sparrow maybe an anchor and maybe a cross or something else. Sure it was talk of the estate for a while. All sorts of speculation as to his past. Crazy to think of now.